Cong holds internal deliberations on seat-sharing arrangements, candidates for Bihar polls

The Congress on Wednesday held internal discussions on seat-sharing arrangements with like-minded parties and prospective candidates for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. AICC Bihar in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil, Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Madan Mohan Jha, the party's Bihar polls screening committee chief Avinash Pande, Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh and other senior members held a marathon meeting, in which opinion was sought on pre-poll tie-ups, sources said.

They said the seat-sharing arrangement with RJD and other like-minded parties as well as prospective candidates were discussed during the meeting. The deliberations will continue on Thursday and some more state leaders like the Bihar unit's working president, Kaukab Quadri, will be joining it, the sources added.

There will be clarity on seat-sharing and alliances in the next couple of days, the sources further said. The Congress is contesting the Bihar assembly polls as part of the "Mahagathbandhan" with the RJD, Left parties and some smaller state parties.

The three-phase assembly election in Bihar will start on October 28 and end on November 7, with the results to be declared on November 10. The sources said the seat-sharing arrangement is still not finalised as the RJD, which is the bigger partner in the alliance, is not ready to offer more than 55 seats to the Congress, which wants to contest on 70-75 seats out of a total of 243.

The Congress had contested the last assembly polls in 2015 in Bihar as part of the "Mahagathbandhan" with the RJD and the JDU. While the Congress got 41 seats as part of the seat-sharing arrangement in 2015, the RJD and the JDU contested on 101 seats each.

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